I know I only just posted the last one, but today was pretty good and I have a couple of minutes before we head out for dinner.
So after my waking up at 5am, I went back to the room at around 6 where Mum was awake. We decided to go for a walk and after heading toward Yasukuni-dori we walked down it a few hundred metres. Where our hotel was, was in Jinbocho which has a lot of used book stores. A couple of hundred metres down the road is Ogawamachi and the area between is stacked with snow shops. As we've been to the snow shops on the last 2 visits, it was familiar territory, but this being Japan, nothing was going to be open at 6.30ish on a Sunday morning. Hell, most of the shops don't open til 10 or 11. But walked there and decided to head to DonKi (an abbreviation of Don Quixote). It's hard to describe this shop. It has anything and everything that anyone could want at 3am in the morning. Clothes, electronics, bikes, novelty items etc are to be found. I had particularly come looking for a Pikachu suit (I was going to get a video of me shredding down the mountain in it) but at 3990Y (about $45) it was a bit much for a stupid bit of fun. I did get another face warmer and a couple of pairs of socks, and Mum got some stockings for her and Whitney. We looked at the time and it was getting on, so after catching the subway back to Ogawamachi and getting to the hotel, it was time to bail. We had a bullet train to catch!
As mentioned in the previous post, our tickets on the Shinkansen were booked for 9.04, so we had to get there before hand so we didn't miss it. After much walking from Otemachi back to Tokyo station (It's about 800m with stairs), we made it with about 15 mins to spare. None of us had any breakfast yet, so we grabbed a bento box from the fresh bento box station on the platform. Dean and Con got tonkatsu (crumbed pork cutlets) with rice and little sides, and I got a boring sandwich box. I also grabbed a hot coffee can (Wonda Morning blend) and we found our seats on the train and started eating. Even though its only about 2 hours on the train, there is a lady with a push cart that comes past with snacks, bento, drinks, beer, (I love this country!) and a pretty reasonable price.
We got to Nagano Station around 10.50 so we had about 25 minutes til the bus to Shiga Kogen left. It allowed time for me and Dean to go across the road to the 7-11 to get some cash out. Even Nagano with a population of about 400k has multiple 7-11's in a near vicinity.
The bus ride was fairly uneventful. I ended up sitting next to a couple from Brisbane who were going to see the snow monkeys, so I gave them a couple of pointers, and there were a couple of US navy guys (stationed south of Yokohama) who decided to hop on a bus to the snow for a couple of days with no accommodation. Luckily there are plenty of hotels, but they got off at Hasuike. A couple of minutes later we were out our destination, Ichinose. Our hotel was right near the bus stop so after a few minutes we were checked in and up in our rooms.
It was now about 1pm, so we were all hungry again. A quick walk up the road and we found a place making mini pizzas. I got one with potato and bacon, while everyone else had a mixed pizza (Salami, crab, corn and bacon!?!). Time to setup up our new boards so it was back to hotel and off to the lifts for passes. Here came the interesting part..... teaching Mugget to snowboard. With only an hour and half til lifts closed, could we do it? Well we did one run that took forever. A lot of falling down on Conrad's part and and some wobbly feet as me and Dean regained our footing. We got on the last lift of the day, and it was a lot faster effort from Conrad, so tomorrow it will be better.
On the way down we kept stopping so we didn't lose Mugget, but one section I grabbed a handful of snow and through it at Dean who was sitting at the edge of the run. Needless to say I overbalanced myself and took one almighty tumble, which knocked the wind out of my sails (I thought I'd broken a rib originally). While I was getting my breath back snow patrol came down the mountain on a snowmobile saying the mountain was now closed and we needed to hurry it up. Me and Dean said we'd be right, but we got Conrad stuck on the back of the snowmobile. First day and he already gets to go fast! :P
Anyhow, we are now back in the hotel feeling a little sore, and I have to have a shower quickly before we head out to Kamoshika for some tandoori and naan :D. I'll see if I can get some photos up later tonight, but for the time being it's over and out.
I gave Mum my camera to take pictures with on the shinkansen, so they are what she saw. They're here
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